More grateful thanks to my musical guru, Julian Cope, who introduced me (and my co-explorer of music, Dave O) to the great Japanese rock scene of the 60s and 70s via his book, Japrocksampler.
According to Julian, J.A. Seazer, aka Takaaki Terahara, was born in 1948, on the island of Kyushu. After a quasi-mythological childhood, in 1968 he ended up in the wild Shinjuku district of Tokyo, and hung out with like-minded hippies and artists. He met and became influenced by dramatist Shuji Terayama and his cohorts. After experiencing various epiphanies, he began to compose music for Terayama's Tenjo Sajiki theater troupe. An ad for J.A. Seazer's music reads:
The borderline between reality and illusion will be dissolving.
Voodoo rock that invokes blood and the memory of blood.
Whoa...scary.
Toukyou Junreika does not sound so frightening as it begins. It is very quiet and solemn, as if we are in a temple. A bass and guitar emerge from a slight thunder cloud, piano joins in, and the chorus begins to sing. But pay attention, the voices are building in numbers, gaining power.
Then...at 2:06, there is a cymbal crash, and the voices get louder. At 2:21, heavy electric guitar chords swoops in and things spiral out of control at 2:30. I have no idea what the words are, but these people are pissed off about something...well, I suppose it could be 'how frickin long until we get to Tokyo?! My feet hurt!'
At 3:08 we get a break for dinner...maybe everyone will feel better after a rest? Nope, it all starts up again at 3:41, but at least now the people sound more driven to make it to Tokyo in spite of the hardships. Guitars cattle prod them along the road. Faster! Get going!
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